Items in parenthesis refer to (book:page); book references
can be found at the end of the post.Where helpful, I have added hyperlinks in addition to page
references.I have also added
specificity to several previously unspecific dates.

1.Britain gained access to the trade following the
Battle of Plassey in 1757, when Britain annexed the Bengal Presidency to its
empire.

2.The British people wanted tea from China, paid
for in silver; the Chinese didn’t want much of anything from the Empire.As the British were running low on silver,
opium was the vehicle through which they remedied the trade imbalance.

i.Warren
Delano (Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s grandfather) joins Russell and Company in
China (10:19), becoming number two partner in 1839 at 30 years old (10:23) and
head partner within ten years. (10:26)

6)1839

a.March

i.Beginning
of First
Anglo-Afghan War, fought between British imperial India and the Emirate of
Afghanistan from 1839 to 1842.

b.3 November

i.Beginning
of First Opium War, fought between Britain and
China over their conflicting viewpoints on diplomatic relations, trade, and the
administration of justice for foreign nationals.

1.And to protect Britain’s opium trade in China.

7)1841

a.Unknown

i.US
Commodore Lawrence Kearny was sent to China to protect American interests
during the First Opium War. (10:26)

8)1842

a.29 August

i.Signing
of the Treaty of Nanking between Britain and
China, ending the First Opium War.Britain gets Honk Kong.

9)1844

a.3 July

i.Treaty
of Wangxia between United States and China, allowing the United States five
“New Chinas,” districts of extraterritoriality – in other words, American
districts governed by American law. (10:28)

1.In the treaty, the US agreed that the opium
trade would be illegal, a meaningless provision given that Americans could not
be tried in Chinese courts. (10:28)

1.Ended the Austro-Prussian War. The treaty was
lenient toward the Austrian Empire because Otto von Bismarck had persuaded
Wilhelm I that maintaining Austria's place in Europe would be better in the
future for Prussia than harsh terms, as Bismarck realized that without Austria,
Prussia would be weakened in a relatively hostile Europe.

17)1871

a.18 January

i.During
the Siege of Paris, William was formally proclaimed German
Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles.

1.Japan employed gunboat diplomacy to press Korea
to sign this unequal treaty. The pact opened up Korea, as Commodore Matthew
Perry's fleet of Black Ships had opened up Japan in 1853.

21)1877

a.24 April

i.Beginning
of Russo-Turkish
War: The Russian-led coalition won the war. As a result, Russia succeeded
in claiming several provinces in the Caucasus, namely Kars and Batum, and also
annexed the Budjak region. The principalities of Romania, Serbia, and
Montenegro, each of whom had had de facto sovereignty for some time, formally
proclaimed independence from the Ottoman Empire. After almost five centuries of
Ottoman domination (1396–1878), the Bulgarian state was re-established as the
Principality of Bulgaria

22)1878

a.3 March

i.Treaty of San
Stefano, ending the Russo-Turkish War.The treaty was never implemented, replaced by the Treaty of Berlin.

1.Article 1 provides: “There shall be perpetual
peace and friendship between the President of the United States and the King of
Chosen and the citizens and subjects of their respective Governments. If other
powers deal unjustly or oppressively with either Government, the other will
exert their good offices on being informed of the case to bring about an
amicable arrangement, thus showing their friendly feelings.”

b.6 May

i.The Chinese Exclusion Act signed by
President Chester A. Arthur. It was one of the most significant restrictions on
free immigration in US history, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese
laborers.

1.Repealed by the Magnuson Act on December 17,
1943.

c.20 May

i.The Triple Alliance,
also known as the Triplice, was a secret agreement between Germany,
Austria-Hungary, and Italy formed on 20 May 1882 and renewed periodically until
it expired in 1915….

1.The treaty provided that each party would remain
neutral if the other became involved in a war with a third great power, though
this would not apply if Germany attacked France or if Russia attacked Austria.

27)1888

a.15 June

i.Wilhelm II
becomes German Emperor and King of Prussia, serving until the end of the Great
War.

28)1893

a.14 February

i.White
“Hawaiians” sign annexation treaty of Hawaii, less than one month after US
Marines capture Iolani Palace.The next
day, President Harrison submits treaty to Senate for ratification. (9:159)

b.17 February

i.Paul
Neumann, Queen Lili’uokalani’s personal attorney throws a wrench into the
ratification of the treaty – native Hawaiians are not in favor of this treaty.
(9:159)

c.8 March

i.Newly
elected President Grover Cleveland withdraws support for the annexation treaty.
(9:160)

d.1 April

i.American
flag in Honolulu is lowered, ending Hawaii’s status as US protectorate. (9:160)

i.“China
can never be reformed from within.The
manifold needs of China…will be met permanently, completely, only by Christian
civilization.”Reverend Arthur Henderson
Smith, American missionary in China, from his book “Chinese Characteristics.”(10:13)

i.First Sino-Japanese War ends: China
recognized the total independence of Korea and ceded the Liaodong Peninsula (in
the south of the present day Liaoning Province), Taiwan and the Penghu Islands
to Japan "in perpetuity".

b.23 April

i.At
the behest of the Chinese (betting on a “barbarian vs. barbarian” strategy),
ministers of Russia, France and Germany call on Japanese Foreign Ministry,
opposing Japanese ownership of Liaodong Peninsula. (9:201)

1.Unable to militarily resist the three European
powers, Japan cedes the peninsula – Russia claimed the peninsula and the
coveted Port Arthur. (9:202)

31)1897

a.29 January

i.Filipino
freedom fighters appeal to US State Department for assistance to expel the
Spanish by force.The US did not assist.
(9:76)

i.USS
Maine explodes in Havana harbor,
killing more than 200 American sailors. (9:76) There was no evidence of foul
play by the Spanish. (9:77)

b.18 February

i.William
Randolph Hearst’s Journal runs
headline: “DESTRUCTION OF THE WARSHIP MAINE WAS THE WORK OF AN ENEMY: Assistant
Secretary [Theodore] Roosevelt Convinced the Explosion of the War Ship Was Not
and Accident.” (9:78) President McKinley confides to an aide: “I have been
through one war [US Civil War]; I have seen the dead pile up, and I do not want
to see another.” (9:79)

c.10 April

i.First
of several German
Naval Laws, intended to significantly increase Germany’s naval
capabilities. Seen by Britain as a direct challenge.

d.20 April

i.McKinley
signs war resolution against Spain. (9:79)

e.1 May

i.“Battle
of Manila Bay” between the steel ships of the US Navy and the wooden ships of
Spain.It was a short battle. (9:87)

f.12 June

i.Philippines’
celebrates first Independence Day.They
would not get to celebrate a second for sixty-four years. (9:91)

g.14 June

i.American
troops sail from Tampa to Havana to “free” Cuba. (9:80)

h.30 June

i.Philippine
President Aguinaldo allows 2500 armed American soldiers to come ashore to help
prosecute the war with Spain. “I have studied attentively the Constitution of
the United States, and I find in it no authority for colonies, and I have no
fear.” (9:92)

1.Eight foreign powers joined together to put down
the rebellion: the United Kingdom, Russia, Japan, France, United States,
Germany, Italy, Austria-Hungary.

34)1900

a.3 June

i.The
(William Howard) Taft Commission, formed and authorized by President McKinley to
study conditions in the Philippines, arrives in Manila Bay. “The populace that we expected to welcome us
was not there.” (9:115)

b.28 August

i.T.
Roosevelt to a friend: “I should like to see Japan have Korea.She will be a check upon Russia, and she
deserves it for what she has done.” (9:208)

c.29 October

i.“I
wish to see the United States the dominant power on the shores of the Pacific
Ocean,” Theodore Roosevelt. (9:1)

i.Vice
President T. Roosevelt first says: “Speak softly and carry a big stick” at the
Minnesota State Fair. (9:203)

d.7 September

i.Boxer
Protocol brings an end to the Boxer
Rebellion.Provides for the
execution of government officials who had supported the Boxers, provisions for
foreign troops to be stationed in Beijing, and 450 million taels of silver—more
than the government's annual tax revenue—to be paid as indemnity over the
course of the next thirty-nine years to the eight nations involved.

e.14 September

i.McKinley dies as a result of assassin’s
bullet, shot on September 6.He had
initially been viewed as recovering from the wound. Vice President Theodore
Roosevelt took office.

i.American
minister to Japan, Lloyd Griscom, warns from Tokyo that the Japanese nation is
worked up “to a high pitch of excitement….”Only a complete back down by Russian government will satisfy the public.
(9:211)

i.Beijing
notifies Roosevelt that I will end the US-China Treaty, due for renewal in
1905; they call on Roosevelt to negotiate a fairer agreement. (9:288)

d.4 February

i.Prime
minister of Japan, Taro Katsura, assembles cabinet before Emperor Meiji;
reports that reaching agreement with Russia regarding Korea was not possible as
Russia would not negotiate seriously. (9:212)

e.6 February

i.Japan
breaks relations with Russia. (9:213)

ii.T.
Roosevelt writes privately: “The sympathies of the United States are entirely
on Japan’s side, but we will maintain the strictest neutrality.” (9:213)

f.8 February

i.Beginning of Russo-Japanese War: Three hours before
Japan's declaration of war was received by the Russian government, the Japanese
Imperial Navy attacked the Russian Far East Fleet at Port Arthur.

1.President Theodore Roosevelt after Japan’s
successful surprise attack: “I was thoroughly pleased with the Japanese victory
for Japan is playing our game.” (9:201)

2.Roosevelt notifies France and Germany that if
they assist Russia “I should promptly side with Japan and proceed to whatever
length was necessary on her behalf.” (9:216)

g.26 March

i.Ambassador
Takahira introduces Baron Kentaro Kaneko (Harvard Law degree, born into a
Samurai family) to the US State Department.Kaneko’s role is to influence US policy favorably toward Japan. Later taken to the White House; Roosevelt
moves Kaneko to the front of the line. Roosevelt gushed.(9:222)

1.Roosevelt repeatedly meets with Kaneko over a
period of nineteen months; talks kept secret from the State Department. (9:220/224)

h.8 April

i.Series
of agreements between France and England signed, known as Entente
Cordiale.

i.1 May

i.Battle
of Yalu River ends.First major land
clash of Russo-Japanese War, ending with a route of the Russians. (9:223)

39)1905

a.1 January

i.Russians
surrender Port Arthur to Japan. (9:228)

b.22 January

i.“Bloody Sunday” in St. Petersburg.While attempting to present a petition to
Tsar Nicholas II, unarmed demonstrators led by Father Georgy Gapon were fired
upon by soldiers of the Imperial Guard.Marked by some as a key event leading to the Revolution of 1917.

1.Among other demands, the petition called for an
end to the Russo-Japanese War.

i.End
of Battle of Mukden between Japan and Russia, ending in victory for Japan; one
of the largest land battles in history up to that time.Nearly one million combatants and almost
200,000 casualties. (9:234)

e.28 May

i.Last battle of Russo-Japanese War: The Japanese engaged
the Russians in the Tsushima Straits on 27–28 May 1905. The Russian fleet was
virtually annihilated, losing eight battleships, numerous smaller vessels, and
more than 5,000 men, while the Japanese lost three torpedo boats and 116 men.
Only three Russian vessels escaped to Vladivostok. After the Battle of
Tsushima, a combined Japanese Army and Navy operation occupied Sakhalin Island
to force the Russians to sue for peace.

f.31 May

i.Ambassador
Takahira brings Roosevelt a secret telegram from foreign minister Komura,
requesting that Roosevelt invite Japan and Russia to open direct negotiations.To the world, this was presented as
Roosevelt’s initiative. (9:238)

1.China was not invited to talks meant to parcel
out Chinese territory. (9:238)

g.5 June

i.Russian
Tsar agrees to talks, but “without intermediaries.” (9:239)

h.1 July

i.Secretary
of war, William Howard Taft, Alice Roosevelt (T. Roosevelt’s daughter), seven
senators, and twenty-three congressmen – along with wives and aides, about 80
people altogether – boarded a transcontinental train in Washington, beginning
their journey to the Far East. (9:11) At the time, it was the largest
diplomatic delegation to Asia in US history. (9:1)

i.2 July

i.Roosevelt
announces that Russia and Japan have agreed to talks at Portsmouth, New
Hampshire, beginning August 5. (9:241)

j.7 July

i.Roosevelt
invites Kaneko for discussions in preparation of negotiations with Russia.
(9:241)

k.8 July

i.The
SS Manchuria, with the aforementioned
US delegation, departs San Francisco for Asia. (9:59)

i.Roosevelt
invites Ambassador Takahira to iron out last-minute details in preparation for
talks with Russia. (9:244)

ii.Alice
Roosevelt dines with Emperor Meiji in his palace in the center of Tokyo,
showing Alice his private garden (never before shown to a White Christian).
(9:244)

o.28 July

i.Secretary
Taft and Prime Minister Katsura meet secretly in Shiba Palace; the only other
person present was the interpreter.No
transcript was made of the discussion. (9:248)

1.Hands off the Philippines, uphold Open Door
Policy for China, Korea for Japan.No formal
alliance would be possible as the US Senate would not approve such a treaty.
(9:248)

a.Taken from Taft’s secret summary to President
Roosevelt, nineteen years later. (9:249)

p.30 July

i.In
Tokyo, Sun Yat-sen, looking for funds to support his revolution, meets with
Charlie Soong, a wealthy Shanghai publisher. (10:87)

1.Charlie Soong was educated in the United States,
taken under wing by Southern Methodists – hoping to build a Southern Methodist
New China. (10:88)

2.Upon returning to China, Soong realized that few
Chinese were interested in becoming Christian; he also found that many
Americans would send a lot of money to him on the premise that China would be
converted. (10:90)

3.Soong returns to America, raising funds for Dr.
Sun’s revolution, proclaiming what would become a Christianized China. (10:91)

q.4 August

i.Manchuria steams into Manila.Taft: “I did not come to give you your
independence…” (9:252)

ii.Two
emissaries of Korean Emperor Gojong meet Roosevelt to ask him to exercise his
“good offices” to save Korea. (9:300)

r.5 August

i.Commencement
of negotiations to resolve the Russo-Japanese War. (9:300)

s.11 August

i.At
a banquet at the Hotel Metropole, Taft describes Filipinos as “sacred wards of
the United States.” (9:259)

t.31 August

i.Manchuria departs Manila for Hong Kong.
(9:267)

u.2 September

i.While
in Hong Kong, Taft receives a telegram from Roosevelt, advising him to be tough
on the Chinese: “Make them realize that we intend to do what is right and that
we cannot submit to what is now being done by them” – referring to a rumor that
the military was helping to enforce a boycott of US goods. (9:292)

v.3 September

i.Secretary
of War Taft steams west from British Hong Kong to the Chinese city of Canton.
(9:269)

1.Not on the Manchuria,
but on the US Navy gunboat Laliao; he
was warned that he risked personally harm, as he was travelling to one of the
most anti-American cities in China (the Cantonese, for example, had earlier
boycotted all American goods). (9:271)

2.Taft delivers a tough message from President
Roosevelt. (9:271) The agitation of boycott is thereafter increased not
reduced. (9:294)

a.Estimates vary, with some concluding that the
boycott cut US exports to China by more than half. (9:296)

1.No cash indemnity to the Japanese – one of the
key expectations of the Japanese population. (9:303)

a.Osaka Newspaper draws picture of weeping
skeleton of a Japanese soldier holding the treaty with the words “We are
ashamed to report this.”

b.Riots broke out in cities that so recently
cheered Roosevelt’s daughter. (9:304)

x.October

i.Tsar
Nicolas and family are prepared to flee abroad, with St. Petersburg in turmoil
and defenses undermanned. To avoid this fate, the Tsar grants civil liberties
and a constitutional order. The lesson of war (in this case, the war with
Japan) precipitating events leading to internal revolution were thought to be
understood. (13:49)

y.November

i.One
month before his appointment as new Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey offered:

1.In a bold statement given to The Times just a
month before his appointment at the end of 1905, he made it clear that there
would be much to gain if an understanding could be reached about “our Asiatic
possessions.”No British government, he
said, would “make it its business to thwart or obstruct Russia’s policy in
Europe.”It was “urgently desirable,”
therefore, “that Russia’s position and influence” should be expanded in Europe
– and diverted, in other words, from Asia.

z.15 November

i.American
Homer
Hulbert, sent by Korean Emperor Gojong, arrives at State
Department.Gojong believed that if
Roosevelt knew the truth – that Japan held a knife to Korea’s throat – he would
have Japan back down. (9:311)

1.No high official in the Roosevelt administration
would see Hulbert, as the other shoe was going to drop for Korea shortly.
(9:311)

aa.17 November

i.Korea’s
new dictator, Hirobumi Ito, travels from Tokyo to Seoul.Told Gojong’s ministers that they would now
agree to a new treaty. (9:311)

1.The treaty begins with a statement that Japan’s
Department of Foreign Affairs will control and direct the external relations of
Korea; in foreign countries, Japan’s diplomatic and consular representatives
will represent interests of Koreans. (9:312)

2.With Japanese bayonets outside, the ministers
signed the treaty. (9:312)

3.Roosevelt does not act on Hulbert’s mission.
(9:312) Thus ignoring the “good offices” clause of the 1882 US-Korea Treaty.
(9:314)

bb.24 November

i.US
Secretary of State meets Hulbert, tells him now it is too late to do anything
for Korea. (10:81)

cc.28 November

i.US
hand over the US legation building in Seoul to the Japanese, giving them a base
from which to begin “civilizing” Asia. (9:313)

40)1906

a.31 January

i.Secret
military negotiations begin between Britain and France, binding the British
Expeditionary Force top the French Army. (13:89)

b.7 April

i.The Algeciras
Conference of 1906 took place in Algeciras, Spain, and lasted from 16
January to 7 April. The purpose of the conference was to find a solution to the
First Moroccan Crisis of 1905 between France and Germany…

41)1907

a.31 August

i.Anglo-Russian
Entente, dividing Persia, Afghanistan and Tibet into British and Russian
spheres, ending Russian desires to drive to the coast. (13:51)

42)1908

a.September

i.While
it is unclear if Russian Foreign Minister Alexander Izlovski formally agreed or
merely agreed to present the terms to the Tsar, in a meeting at the Austrian
Foreign Minister’s office a trade was negotiated: Russia would look benignly on
the annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina by the Dual Monarchy and in exchange
Austria would support Russian attempts to open the Turkish straights from the
Black Sea to the Mediterranean. (13:52)

b.6 October

i.The
Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary announces its annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, dual
provinces in the Balkan region of Europe formerly under the control of the
Ottoman Empire.

c.Unknown

i.Requested
by the Ottoman Sultan for modernization of the navy, the British sent the first
of three
naval missions to the Porte, covering the period from January 1909 –
September 1914. (15:36)

i.The Agadir Crisis or
Second Moroccan Crisis was a brief international crisis sparked by the
deployment of a substantial force of French troops in the interior of Morocco
in April 1911.

c.July

i.Germany
dispatches a gunboat to the Moroccan port of Agadir, precipitating one more
crisis with France regarding Morocco. (13:222)

d.Unknown

i.While
secretary of War under President Taft from 1911 – 1913, Henry Stimson develops
contingency plans for war against Japan.It is felt that Japan could be blockaded with no risk to the United
States of a long war. (10:122)

1.At the time, the US was Japan’s largest supplier
of oil and steel. (10:123)

44)1912

a.8 October

i.Beginning
of First Balkan War, pitting the Balkan League
(Serbia, Greece, Montenegro and Bulgaria) against the Ottoman Empire.

i.Tsar
Nicholas informs his “incredulous” prime minister, Vladimir Kokovtsov, of his
plan to rectify an imbalance of forces vis-à-vis Austria: he had ordered the
mobilization of forces along the Austrian frontier, some 1.1 million men. Kokovtsov
explained that in Europe, mobilization would be seen as war. Eventually, the
mobilization was not undertaken. (13:58, 62)

45)1913

a.May

i.Tsar
Nicholas, disturbed by the signs of drunkenness in the villages, banned
vodka.Vodka sales, monopolized by the
state, provided one-third of state revenue.(13:76)

b.20 May

i.End
of First Balkan War,
with the allies capturing and partitioning almost all remaining European
territories of the Ottoman Empire.

c.24 May

i.Princess
Louise of Germany is married in Potsdam; the last great social event in Europe
before the war, marking the last time that the three cousins – Kaiser Wilhelm,
Tsar Nicholas II, and King George V – are together. (13:66)

d.29 June

i.Beginning
of Second Balkan War, a conflict which broke
out when Bulgaria, dissatisfied with its share of the spoils of the First
Balkan War, attacked its former allies, Serbia and Greece.

e.10 August

i.End
of Second Balkan War: The Ottoman Empire also took advantage of the situation
to regain some lost territories from the previous war. When Romanian troops
approached the capital Sofia, Bulgaria asked for an armistice, resulting in the
Treaty of Bucharest, in which Bulgaria had to cede portions of its First Balkan
War gains to Serbia, Greece and Romania. In the Treaty of Constantinople, it
lost Edirne to the Ottomans.

i.Sazonov
is informed by Girs that the two British built dreadnought-class battleships
will be delivered to the Ottoman Black Sea fleet by March or April 2014; these
would make obsolete Russia’s entire Black Sea fleet. (15:30)

i.30 November

i.Colonel
von Reuter surrounds the square of Zabern with sixty soldiers and two machine
guns, threatening the population if they continue to disrespect the German
military. Men were arrested for laughing. Twenty-seven people were arrested and spent
the night in jail. (13:24)

j.November

i.Rumors
about the imminent appointment of Limon von Sanders of Germany to command the
defenses of the Ottoman Straits reach Russia. (15:30)

k.2 December

i.Karl
Blank, a journeyman shoemaker, was caught laughing at the German troops.He received a saber to the head from
Forstner, suffering severe injury.Forstner’s conviction was later overturned. (13:26, 34)

l.6 December

i.Sazonov
warns the tsar of the threats to the Straits. (15:31)

m.14 December

i.Germany
sends General Limon von Sanders to command Turkish army corps in
Constantinople.Whereas Russian and
German antagonisms were previously indirect (via Austria), this brought Russian
and German interested in direct conflict. (13:63, 68)

46)1914

a.6 January

i.Sazonov
writes a memo to Tsar Nicholas II, proposing the idea of provoking a European
war over the question of the Straits, and the subsequent carving up of Turkey
by the Triple Entente powers. (15:31)

b.13 January

i.In
a meeting with members of his cabinet, it was proposed to Tsar Nicholas that
Russia occupy a city on the Black Sea Coast of Turkey, in an effort to force
Turkey to expel von Sanders and the Germans.Kokovtsov continued to press that war meant internal revolutionary
unrest, opposed this plan.The cabinet
supported Kokovtsov.Two weeks later,
the Tsar removed him from office. (13:71-72)

c.21 February

i.The
Russian Duma approves the appropriation of 102 million rubles to accelerate the
develop of the Black Sea fleet. (15:33)

d.February

i.Pyotr
Durnovo sent a memorandum to Tsar Nicholas, warning that if Russia enters a
coming war, it would unleash internal revolution.It is unclear if the Tsar ever read the memo.
(13:45)

e.14 March

i.Churchill
delivers speech regarding rebellion in Ulster, rebellion against the Catholic
southern Ireland and Home Rule, with the Protestants in minority.He offers friendship and concessions; the
alternative is a fight – he threatens the Irish. (13:106)

f.16 March

i.Many
British officers in Ireland and also in the Navy chose to resign if ordered to
march. (13:108)

ii.Henriette
Caillaux shoots Gaston Calmette, editor of Le
Figaro, ultimately costing her husband Joseph the position of France’s
premier.Joseph was likely to diffuse
any crisis with Germany and also was not in favor of alliance with Russia.
(13:204, 208)

g.April

i.German
rifles are delivered to Ulster, with the commander of the Royal Navy ships
ordered to blockade having “turned a blind eye.” (13:114)

h.29 May

i.“It
is militarism run stark mad…Whenever England consents, France and Russia will
close in on Germany and Austria.” Colonel House (15:41)

i.May

i.The
Russian ambassador to London asks the British government why they are
supporting the Turkish navy and, hence, destroying Russia’s entire strategic
position. (15:38)

j.12 June

i.Grey
and Churchill reply to the Russian protest – as they are a laissez-faire economy, it is not up to the government to obstruct a
private enterprise! (15:39)

i.Disaster
in Ireland is now a few days away, proclaimed the Times; this in the same edition reporting the assassination of the
Archduke. For months, Ireland (and not the tensions in Europe) occupied
Britain’s press.(13:116)

m.4 July

i.Military
warns British Cabinet that 200,000 armed men were in Ireland, suppressing
revolts.If civil war broke out in Ireland
(Protestant North vs. Catholic remainder), the entire Expeditionary Force, the
Special Reserve and the Territorial Army would be required to restore order –
preventing Britain from meeting “obligations abroad.” (13:90)

n.5 July

i.Kaiser
Wilhelm II promises that Germany will stand by Austria if she attacks Serbia.
(15:43)

o.16 July

i.The
Russian ambassador in Vienna reports to Petersburg that Austria will soon make
certain demands on Belgrade. (15:51)

p.20 July

i.Beginning
of a four-day French presidential summit with the tsar and his foreign minister
in Petersburg.Apparently, no
information has been published on the discussions. (15:45) The French
delegation witnesses a military environment, including a review of 60,000 men.
(15:54)

q.22 July

i.Enver
Pasha of Ottoman Turkey approaches Germany with a request for an alliance.The proposal is rejected. (11:49) In Berlin,
the German government almost immediately begins to have second thoughts
regarding this rejection. (11:58)

ii.Sazonov
reports to his ambassador in Vienna that France will not tolerate a humiliation
of Serbia. (15:53)

ii.11
AM: Sazonov instructs the chief of Russia’s General Staff to make “all
arrangements for putting the army on a war footing.” A partial mobilization
plan was to be reviewed by the Council of Ministers at 3 PM. (15:54/55)

iii.Sazonov
considers war unavoidable. (15:56) This is stated before the meeting of the Council of Ministers. (15:57)

iv.Russian
council of ministers meets to decide the response to Austria’s ultimatum to
Serbia.Kokovtsov’s cool head is no
longer in the council. (13:79) It is also concluded that war would not bring
internal revolution. (13:80)

v.The
mobilization was not limited to safeguarding Serbia’s independence, but a
wide-scale mobilization. (15:59)

vi.The
mobilization would not be publicly announced until 28 July. (15:59)

i.Austrian
Emperor Francis Joseph uses the word “I” twenty six times in his war manifesto;
for him, the war is personal. (13:179)

ii.Germany’s
consul in Warsaw reports that “Russia is already fully in a state of preparation
for war….” (15:68)

iii.Russia
formally informs Britain of its mobilization. (15:70)

y.30 July

i.Nicholas
orders general mobilization. (13:80) This is the official public announcement
of the previously approved decision. (15:73)

ii.Sazonov
explains that reversing the mobilization order is now impossible, and it was
brought on by the Austrians. (15:41)

iii.Sazonov
wires his ambassador in London: “it is a matter of the highest importance” that
Turkey not receive the two dreadnoughts being built for her in England.
(15:102)

z.31 July

i.Ottoman
Turkey secretly learns Britain plans to seize two warships built in British
shipyards, the Reshadieh and the
larger Sultan Osman I. (11:58)

aa.1 August

i.Ottoman
Turkey and Germany agree to a treaty of alliance, with Germany obligating
itself to defend Ottoman territory in case it should be threatened. (11:59) The
Ottoman government enticed Berlin to sign the treaty by agreeing to turn over
the Sultan Osman I – a warship that
the Ottoman government already secretly knew was not going to be delivered by
the British! (11:60) Germany never learned that the Turks knew of the coming
confiscation before the treaty was signed. (11:69)

ii.The
Turks and the Germans discuss allowing the German warships Goeben and Breslau to
come to Constantinople and on to the Black Sea. (11:62) The Germans believe the
Turks have agreed; the Turks went back and forth. (11:64)

iii.Von
Moltke explains to the Kaiser that the mobilization cannot be improvised – the
plans took one year to develop and cannot be altered. (15:41)

bb.2 August

i.France
and then Germany declare mobilization. (14:38)

ii.Germany
declares war on Russia. (14:38)

iii.Germany
presents ultimatum to Belgium (14:45)

iv.Turkey
mobilizes (15:103)

v.The
Porte (Turkey) publicly maintains a position of neutrality, while secretly
signs an alliance treaty with Berlin (15:103)

cc.3 August

i.Britain
formally notifies the Ottoman government that it will not deliver the two
Ottoman commissioned warships. (11:58)

ii.Germany
declares war on France. (14:59)

iii.Germany
enters Belgium. (14:38)

iv.Turkey
closes and mines the southern end of the Dardanelles. (15:103)

ii.Woodrow
Wilson offers the good offices of the United States to bring an end to the
war.The American Ambassador to Berlin,
James W. Gerard, secretly proffered generous terms to the Germans. The Germans
refused, finding the terms insufficient. (13:320)

iii.Turkey
warns Russia: any Russian naval provocation on the Black Sea would be met by
complete closure of the Straits to Russian ships. (15:103)

ee.5 August

i.Enver
Pasha tells Russians that he will pull back the now fully mobilized IX and XI
Corps of the Ottoman Third Army from the Caucasian front, so that Russia can
send its Caucasian army against Germany and Austria. (15:106)

ff.8 August

i.Germans
dropped leaflets in Poland, promising to free the Poles from the “Muscovite
yoke.” (15:88)

ii.Tsar
Nicholas II proclaims before the State Council that Russia is fighting not just
for defense or honor, but on behalf of “our bother Slavs.” (15:89)

gg.9 August

i.Russians
reject Enver’s offer of 5 August. (15:107)

ii.In
anticipation of the arrival of the two German warships, Russia authorizes Black
Sea commander to use any means to annihilate the two ships, even if it means
entering Turkey’s territorial waters. (15:104)

hh.10 August

i.The
Ottoman government issued a press release that it had acquired the two German
warships for eighty million marks.There
was no such agreement with the Germans, but the Germans conceded knowing that
to protest would result in Ottoman public opinion turning strongly against the
German cause. (11:65)

ii.The
two German warships (SMS Goeben and Breslau) arrive at the mouth of the
Dardanelles. (15:103)

ii.16 August

i.The
two German warships enter the Sea of Marmara (15:104)

ii.Russia
publishes in Poland the objective of a reunited, self-governing Poland – which
would include Austrian Galicia.It was
not clear what was meant by self-governing. (15:87)

jj.17 August

i.Contrary
to German expectations, Russia mounted an invasion of East Prussia (14:53)

kk.23 August

i.Sazanov
is told by his ambassador in Turkey that there is a general feeling, especially
among the officers, that war is being prepared against Russia. (15:108)

ll.25 August

i.First
aerial bombardment, by Germany against Antwerp. (14:50)

mm.8 September

i.The
Turks abrogate the Capitulations (15:112)

nn.26 September

i.Believing
that Germany is about to secure a quick victory over the Russians, Enver
personally orders the closing of the Dardanelles to all foreign ships (meaning
all Allied ships). (11:70)

i.Enver
Pasha takes command of the Ottoman Third Army, with the intent to attack the
Russians in the eastern plateau. (11:120) The attack was a disaster for the
Turks, losing perhaps 86% of its 100,000 men. (11:121)

47)1915

a.2 January

i.Lord
Kitchener directs Churchill to investigate the possibility of mounting a naval
assault on the Dardanelles without army support. (15:126)

1.Parvus tells the German ambassador, “The
interests of the German government are identical with those of the Russian
revolutionaries.”

c.20 January

i.Churchill
informs Russian military command that the decision has been made to force a
passageway through the Dardanelles. (15:126) Churchill expects the Russian navy
to mount a similar assault on the north entrance, from the Black Sea (15:131)

d.18 February

i.Germany
declares that any enemy merchant ship found in the waters of Great Britain will
be destroyed. (14:81)

i.The
formal Allied request for Russia to shell the northern end of the Straits is
finally passed on to Stavka (Russian military command). (15:133)

g.10 March

i.An
intercepted cable depicts the remaining Ottoman forts in the Dardanelles to be
running low on ammunition. (11:135) Morale in Constantinople disintegrated.
(11:152)

h.18 March

i.Admiral
de Robeck, despondent from the destruction of a single line of mines in the
straights (yet perhaps only hours away from victory), called off further naval
operations in the Dardanelles. (11:152)

ii.Command
of the Ottoman forces in the Dardanelles was turned over to the German Liman
von Sanders. (11:155)

1.“The President is not proposing peace; he is not
even offering mediation. He is merely proposing that soundings be taken in
order that we may learn, the neutral nations with the belligerent, how near the
haven of peace may be for which all mankind longs with an intense and
increasing longing.”

i.During
a meeting of the Kaiser’s Privy Council, it is decided to unleash unrestricted
submarine warfare.The admirals
predicted within six months Britain would be starved into submission and
American troop transporters would be stopped. (13:172)

b.8 March

i.In
Petrograd, Russia, a demonstration took place during a celebration of
International Women’s Day.Housewives,
protesting food shortages, joined the demonstration, as did workers already on
strike. Two days later four regiments of soldiers joined the demonstrators.The numbers grew to the hundreds of
thousands. (11:245)

c.10 March

i.The
renewed drive for the Straits is conceived by Russian leaders as a means to
calm public opinion in Russia. (15:225)

d.14 March

i.Order
No. 1 is issued, abolishing most elements of officer control in the Russian
armed forces, to be replaced by elected “soldier soviets.” (15:226)

1.“It is manifest that no part of this program can
be successfully carried out unless the restitution of the status quo ante
furnishes a firm and satisfactory basis for it. The object of this war is to
deliver the free peoples of the world from the menace and the actual power of a
vast military establishment controlled by an irresponsible government which,
having secretly planned to dominate the world…”

2.“…the enemy of four-fifths of the world. This
power is not the German people. It is the ruthless master of the German
people.”

p.October

i.British
ask Russian Baratov to make a frontal assault on Mosul (15:227)

q.2 November

i.Foreign
Secretary Balfour issues a letter to Lord Rothschild, commonly known as the
Balfour declaration; Britain is supportive of a national Jewish homeland in
Palestine. (11:297)

r.7 November

i.Lenin
seizes power in Petrograd, benefiting from additional German financial
subsidies. (11:246)

s.25 November

i.Lenin
sends unencrypted unilateral request to Berlin for a ceasefire, without
preconditions. (15:235)

t.November

i.Trotsky
leaks details of the “secret treaties,” including the Sykes-Picot agreement to
the Manchester Guardian. (15:235)

50)1918

a.8 January

i.Wilson
outlines his Fourteen Points in a speech before a joint
session of Congress. (11:258)

ii.Point
13 of Wilson’s Fourteen Point Peace proposal is toward the establishment of a
new state of Poland. (1:421)

b.11 February

i.Wilson
speaks before Congress and outlines the Four Principles upon which the peace
settlement should be made. (11:258)

1.People and provinces not to be bartered between
powers, territorial settlements taken in the interest and for the benefit of
the population concerned.

c.February

i.Bolsheviks
repudiate all tsarist era bonds and all binding contracts and agreements. The
western allies respond in kind, repudiating tsarist bond holdings and freezing
assets. (15:235)

d.3 March

i.Russian
Communists sign Brest-Litovsk Treaty with Germany, ceding
about 1 MM square kilometers to the Germans. (2:3) British and French refuse to
participate in negotiations and never recognize treaty. (15:235)

e.21 March

i.The
German Spring (or Ludendorff) Offensive begins along the Western Front; the
hope is to make a major breakthrough before the Americans become fully engaged.

2.By the third day of the battle, the Germans
had opened a fifty-mile-wide gap and were pouring into open country: Ludendorff
had broken the long trench stalemate–but he had not severed the connection
between the Allied armies. Now heavy losses and fatigue took their toll; hungry
soldiers stopped to loot British supply dumps. After a forty-mile advance,
Ludendorff’s tactical masterpiece faded to strategic inconsequence.

i.Bulgaria
asks for armistice after the Allied force led by new French General Louis
Franchet d'Espèrey launched an offensive into Bulgaria from Salonika, Greece.
(11:363)

l.29 September

i.Ludendorff,
hearing of the Bulgarian Armistice, notified the German government that they
must also sue for armistice, as Ludendorff had no troops with which he could
make a stand on a new, southeastern front. (11:363)

m.1 October

i.Both
the Ottoman government and several prominent individual Turkish leaders begin
to send feelers about suing for peace. (11:364)

1.The British War Cabinet was panicked that peace
might come before British armed forces could occupy all Middle East areas it
hoped to dominate. (11:364)

n.3 October

i.Germany
sends a note to President Wilson, inaugurating armistice negotiations while the
war continued. (11:364)

o.11 November

i.German
surrender received in a rail car in the forest of Compiègne (13:267)

ii.Wilson
offers that the war inflicted “an injury…to civilization…which can never be
atoned for or repaired. (13:324)

p.13 November

i.Lenin
and Trotsky issue order for the Red Army to begin offensive operations against
Europe, in an attempt to continue the war toward world revolution. (2:4)

q.29 November

i.Communist
government of Estonia formed. (2:4)

r.4 December

i.Communist
government of Latvia formed. (2:4)

s.8 December

i.Communist
government of Lithuania formed. (2:4)

t.13 December

i.President
Wilson and his many advisors arrive in Brest, France for the purpose of the
Peace Conference.(11:390)

1.Wilson, being the highest-ranking politician
from the Allies (while at the same time perhaps the least-knowledgeable of
European and international intrigues), would lead the delegation.

u.17 December

i.Manifesto
published in Riga, naming Germany as imminent objective of Communist
revolution. (2:4)

1.It replaced the personal union of the Crown of
the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with a real union and an
elective monarchy…

ii.Polish
army established from remnants of former German, Austrian, Hungarian, and
Russian soldiers (now Polish nationals).Poland use army to attack in three directions at the expense of its
neighbors. (1:424)

iii.Poland
and Czechoslovakia each claim the Teschen region, with the Allies awarding a
portion of it to Czechoslovakia. (1:433)

iv.Finnish
army, immediately upon winning independence from the Russian Bolsheviks, begins
building extensive defenses on the Karelian Isthmus. (2:136)

51)1919

a.January

i.German
Reichstag calls for elections. In
Silesia, combined with a Polish boycott of elections, 75% vote for German
political parties. (1:451)

i.Despite
January election outcome, Allies demand surrender of Upper Silesia to
Poland.It is the third industrial zone
(after the Saar and German Lorraine) to be taken from Germany. (1:451)

ii.Churchill,
before the Aldwych Club in London: “of all tyrannies in history the Bolshevik
tyranny is the worst, the most destructive, the most degrading.It is sheer humbug to pretend that it is not
far worse than German militarism.” (1:543)

i.Poles
blow up three railway and road bridges, sealing off the disputed territory from
Germany. (1:452)

k.December

i.Allies
set the borders between Poland and the White Russians / Ukraine – the Curzon
Line – from Grodno south, then along the Bug River. (1:429)

ii.Poland
refuses to leave conquered territory east of this line; Soviets deploy troops
to the region; Poland attacks Russia without a war declaration. (1:430)

52)1920

a.February

i.French
soldiers, under Allied authority, take over political power in Upper
Silesia.French General, Le Rond, makes
no secret of his sympathy for Poland. (1:452)

b.May

i.Poland
overruns Ukraine as far as Kiev. (1:430)

c.July

i.Soviets
push Polish troops back to Warsaw. (1:430)

ii.Polish
troops then turn the tables and drive Russians back to Minsk, essentially
wiping out Russian army. (1:430)

d.22 September

i.Lenin
sets as objective Warsaw (desiring a common border with Germany from which to
advance), seeing the Versailles Treaty as sowing the seeds for the necessary
revolution in Germany. (2:9)

e.October

i.Poland
occupies Vilnius, Lithuania and the surrounding area. (1432)

f.November

i.Germany
must give up West Prussia, Posen, and East Upper Silesia to Poland as a
consequence of Versailles. (1:436) No referendum is allowed. (1:441)

ii.“Free
State of Danzig” placed under protection of the League of Nations.Neither Germany nor Poland is satisfied.
(1:445)

iii.Every
German government since 1920 is dissatisfied with the decisions of the Allies
at Versailles (1:468)

g.6 December

i.Lenin,
in a keynote speech before the Moscow organization of the Communist Party of
Russia regarding England and France on the one side and Germany on the other
(both sides capitalist, and therefore the enemy), declares: “Until the final
victory of socialism over the whole world,” the fundamental rule remains valid
that “one must exploit the contradictions and conflicts between two groups of
imperialist powers, between two groups of capitalist states, and one must set
them on each other.”[It is] impossible
to defeat both of them, “so one must understand how to group his forces so that
the two come into conflict with each other….” (1:528)

1.Is this what Stalin is playing in 1939?

53)1921

a.19 February

i.France
and Poland conclude an alliance treaty.The core of the treaty is a promise to stand by each other in the case
of unprovoked attack by a third country.This treaty is supplemented on the same day by a secret military
convention, stipulating the details of French support in the event of a German
or Soviet attack against Poland. (1:479)

b.18 March

i.Peace
of Riga, Russia renounces its claim to “East Poland” on the east
side of the Curzon line; losing 5 million Ukrainians, 1.2 million white
Russians, and about 1 million Jews – along with 1.5 million Poles. (1:431) Only
about 1.5 million are Poles. (1: 458)

1.The Soviet-Polish borders established by the
treaty remained in force until the Second World War. They were later redrawn
during the Yalta Conference and Potsdam Conference.

ii.This
event is described by the French Slavic professor Martel: “There were
shootings, hanging, torturing…. Many Ukrainian priests were executed.” (1:462)

ii.As
opposed to applying the election results to the region, the French prevail
amongst the Allies, with a border drawn that includes 400,000 German in Poland.
(1:453)

d.22 March

i.General
strike declared in industrial central Germany (2:11)

e.24 March

i.Communists
take control of government buildings in Hamburg. (2:11)

f.1 May

i.The
Poles disagree with the split proposed by France. (1:453)

g.3 May

i.In
a fourth uprising, Poles use weapons sent by France for the battle with Russia
against the Germans.(1:453) General Le
Rond allows the weapons and Polish infantry to come in unchecked.At the same time, Italian troops attempt to
oppose the uprising. (1:454)

h.5 May

i.Polish
troops and insurgents capture East Upper Silesia as far as the upper reaches of
the Oder. The Reich government protests these actions to the Allied
governments. (1:455)

i.13 May

i.British
Prime Minister Lloyd George offered the following in the Lower House: “This
step was a complete rupture of the Peace Treaty of Versailles…Poland is the
last country that should go against the Treaty of Versailles…If Poland should
get permission to overrun these German provinces, that would come to a bad end.”
(1:455)

j.21 May

i.Volunteers
gather from Germany and Austria, and begin to recapture the lost and destroyed
land: the critical battle is the battle in Annaberg. (1:455)

k.24 May

i.Paris
decrees that every German volunteer in the battle for Upper Silesia is subject
to a fine of up to 100,000 marks. (1:455)

l.5 July

i.German
volunteer units have liberated most of Upper Silesia. (1:456)

m.31 July

i.Founding of Communist Party of China, with
twelve delegates present.

1.…each renounced all territorial and financial
claims against the other following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and World War I.

2.The two governments also agreed to normalise
their diplomatic relations and to "co-operate in a spirit of mutual
goodwill in meeting the economic needs of both countries".

3.Soviet Russia and Germany conclude the Treaty of
Rapallo, as a means to break the isolation each country is experiencing.
(1:527)

b.17 June

i.East
Upper Silesia is forced from the Germans in favor of Poland. (1:456)

c.26 November

i.Soviets
sign agreement with German aviation firm Junkers Flugzeugwerke toward the
production of metal airplanes. (2:17)

d.30 December

i.The
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) is born. (2:11)

e.Unknown

i.Poland
becomes party to the “Geneva Convention for the Protection of Minorities.”
(1:458)

ii.Poland
expels minorities who entered after 1908 if they do not “opt” for Poland.
Initially, those deported are not compensated for property.Officials with Russian or German as their
mother tongue are dismissed from their posts.Half of Russian, German, and Jewish schools are closed. Bilingual teaching is prohibited by Law. Many
business and professional licenses held by minorities are revoked. (1:459)

55)1923

a.3 March

i.Henry
Luce publishes the first issue of Time
Magazine. (10:113)

1.Luce, born in China to a missionary, always
advanced the cause of his father – the mirage of China as a Christianizing
nation.

2.Time
magazine gains a reputation for manufacturing facts. (10:114)

3.He often visited China as an adult, staying at
one of the mansions of the Soong siblings. (10:114)

b.July

i.Soviet
agreement with Germany regarding production of munitions and military
agreement, and a second regarding construction of a chemical plant. (1:17)

i.In
Mein Kampf, Hitler mentions Poland only twice, vaguely and in one case critical
of the Germans and Austrians for attempting to Germanize their Polish
minorities. (1:507)

57)1925

a.12 March

i.Sun
Yat-sen. leader of Nationalist Party, dies. (10:100)

b.15 April

i.Agreement
signed between Soviets and Germans toward creation of a secret air force center
near Russian city of Lipetsk for training German military pilots. (2:17)

c.September

i.In
a letter, German Foreign Minister Stresemann (a Nobel Peace Prize winner and father
of the Franco-German reconciliation) expresses that “no German administration,
from the German Nationalists to the Communists, would ever recognize the
boundary of the Versailles Treaty.” (1:468)

d.October

i.The
Gazeta Gdansk writes: “Poland must
insist that without Königsberg, without the whole of East Prussia, it cannot
exist. We must now demand in Locarno that the whole of East Prussia be
liquidated…. Should this not happen in a peaceful way, then there will be a
second Tannenberg…” (1:472)

1.Referring to the battle of 1410 (Battle of Grunwald) in which the Polish-Lithuanian army
defeated the army of the Teutonic Order, precipitating its political decline.
(1:472)

ii.Germany
recognizes France’s territorial gains from the Great War.Due to this, France weakens its treaty with
Poland – no longer offering a guarantee against a Russian attack, and second,
tying any assistance to a prior decision by the League of Nations. (1:480)

e.December

i.In
a keynote speech at the Locarno negotiations (in which France’s borders and its
possession of Alsace-Lorraine were confirmed), Stresemann added: “The League of
Nations leaves open the right to make war if an agreement cannot be attained on
Political issues… I seek indeed no military conflicts, but also do not exclude
changes of borders in the East, if the impossible boundary drawing in the East
should bring about conditions to make that necessary.” (1:468)

ii.Great
Britain, in the same Locarno negotiations, explicitly refuses to make a
guarantee in favor of Poland concerning the former German territories. (1:468,
482)

58)1926

a.24 April

i.Soviet
Russia and Berlin conclude the Berlin Treaty, a neutrality Treaty for
a period of five years.

1.The purpose is to break out of southeastern
China, conquer central China (including Shanghai) and gain control of the
Yangtze River. (10:101)

c.Unknown

i.Near
the Soviet city of Kazan, a tank school is created for training of Germans.
(1:18)

ii.Soviet
Union begins construction of the “Stalin
Line,” thirteen fortified regions along the western borders of the
USSR; this effort continues through 1937. The line is built deep in Soviet
territory, in order to provide a security pale – a region designed to bog down
an aggressor, ensuring no chance at surprise attack. (2:171)

iii.Max Bauer of Germany is invited to China to
survey investment possibilities, and soon becomes Chiang’s military and
industrial advisor.He soon recruits 46
other German officers to advise and train nationalist forces, while he himself
helped devise the strategy that allowed the nationalist to win its 1929
campaigns against the warlords.

59)1927

a.January

i.Stalin
armed and funded the Chinese nationalist government, in the hope of pacifying
the Soviet Asian border regions. (7:70)

1.Stalin
orders Communist Party of China to obey the KMT (nationalist)
leadership.

b.January / February

i.Mao
concludes that, unlike in Russia, the Chinese communist revolution will be one
of the peasants, not the middle class. (10:137)

c.19 March

i.Chiang
Kai-shek formally agrees to the proposal by Ailing Soong (Soong Ai-ling),
daughter of Charlie and oldest sister
of the very wealthy Soong family, who is alarmed by Mao’s peasant uprisings.
(10:102)

1.At least 20,000 in Shanghai and hundreds of
thousands in the countryside. (10:105)

e.September

i.During
a meeting of the League of Nations, Poland again asks Britain to guarantee its
borders.Britain again refuses. (1:482)

f.1 December

i.Chiang
and Mayling are married. (10:105)

g.Unknown

i.Stalin
consolidates power in Soviet Union. (1:28)

60)1928

a.10 October

i.National
government of China is declared by Chiang. (10:107)

b.Unknown

i.Poland
is party to the “Kellogg Pact,” renouncing war as a means to
settle international disputes. (1:436) Additional parties include the United
States, Belgium, France, Great Britain, and Germany. (1:506)

61)1929

a.29 February

i.The
Soviets, Poland, Romania, and the Baltic states sign the “Litvinov
Protocol,” according to which wars between these countries is to be
excluded in the future as solutions to international disputes. (1:483)

1.Chiang’s purpose, of course, was not for
commercial use – Chinese peasants couldn’t afford to fly. (10:110)

c.Unknown

i.The
buildup of Finnish defenses in the Karelian Isthmus (known as the Mannerheim
Line), increases significantly.The bulk
of Finland’s military expenditures over the next ten years is spent in this
buildup. The line is considered impenetrable by various military experts.
(2:136)

62)1930

a.September

i.Three
years before Hitler’s rise to power, the Polish Foreign Minister Zaleski tells
the President of the Danzig Senate that only a Polish army corps can solve the
Danzig question. (1:473)

b.24 October

i.Chiang
is baptized a Christian; American newspapers flashed the headline. (10:110)

1.“I feel the need of a God such as Jesus Christ.”
(10:111)

2.Pulpits across America sang the news – fruits of
decades of missionary efforts.

a.Of course, it was only in fulfillment of one of
Ailing’s conditions, but the Americans didn’t know anything of this.

c.24 December

i.Two
disassembled tanks, products of American George Walter Christie, were shipped
to the Soviet Union, falsely labeled as tractors.Purpose was for Soviets to study design.
(1:50)

1.After two months of fighting, Chiang’s troops
withdraw in defeat, leaving their German, French, British and American arms
behind for Mao to retrieve. (10:144)

e.Unknown

i.Archbishop
Szeptyćkyj, Metropolitan of the Greek Catholic Church of Lemberg (the Latin for
Lwów Voivodeship, Poland; now Lviv,
Ukraine) writes to a friend: “We are living through terrible times.The punitive expeditions ruin our villages,
our schools, our economic institutions.Thousands
of villagers have been beaten….There is
a critical aggravation of a system of persecution that has not stopped since
1920.” (1:463)

ii.The
newspaper linked to Pilsudski, Mocarstwowiec
(The League of Great Power), writes: “We are aware that war between Poland and
Germany cannot be avoided…we will see…a new victory at Tennenberg…. But we
shall fight this Tannenberg in the suburbs of Berlin.Our ideal is to round Poland off with
frontiers on the Oder in the West and the Neisse in Lausatia, and to incorporate
Prussia, from the Pragel up to the Spree.In this war no prisoners will be taken, there will be no place for
humanitarian feelings.We will surprise
the whole world with our war against Germany.” (1:472)

63)1931

a.May

i.Chiang
launches his second Bandit Extermination Campaign, with 200,000 troops against
30,000 troops for Mao. (10:144)

1.In the very first battle, Mao captured large
amounts of weapons and ammunition given to Chiang by various western powers.

1.Chiang prefers to fight Mao, and not the
Japanese – despite American visions. (10:147)

e.9 October

i.Henry
Stimson, the First Wise Man, demands
from President Hoover that the United States and the League of Nations jointly
condemn Japan’s aggressive actions. Hoover would not, given the value of
Japanese trade to America. (10:121)

f.26 October

i.Luce’s
Time features Chiang and Madame
Chiang on the cover. (10:121)

1.No mention is ever made of Chiang’s admiration
of fascist forms of government. (10:138)

g.October

i.Head
of Warsaw government, Marshal Józef Piłsudski, to US President Hoover: “Poland
must counter an imminent attack by irregular German troops and invade Germany
in order to settle things once and for all.” (1:473)

h.6 December

i.Stimson
argues to Hoover that the risk of war with Japan must be weighed against
Japan’s actions against the cause of peace. (10:123)

i.December

i.The
Manchester Guardian describes the
Polish policy towards minorities as “hell.”“The minorities in Poland are supposed to disappear…. This policy is
recklessly pursued, without the slightest attention to public opinion in the
world…” (1:461)

1.Stimson again argues that a blockade will not
risk war with Japan; Hoover describes that idea as “folly.”

c.22 February

i.Robert
Short, a US Army Air Corps-trained airman and now mercenary pilot, becomes the
first such pilot to die flying for Chiang Kai-shek. (10:127)

d.February

i.Mao
calls for a “no-war policy” with Chiang, and formally declares war on
Japan.Chiang did not oblige. (10:147)

e.23 March

i.Soviet
Union becomes first country in the world to create a heavy bomber corps. (1:35)

f.24 May

i.Chiang
speaks with US ambassador to China, Nelson Johnson, speaking enthusiastically
about a coming was between the US and Japan – pitting one barbarian against
another; “in which the United States will figure as the champion and savior of
China.” (10:127)

g.May

i.Unable
to get State Department approval, TV Soong contacts the Commerce Department’s
representative in Shanghai regarding the purchase of aircraft, spare parts, and
expenses for American airmen.Commerce
agrees (without State Department approval), for the jobs. (10:128)

h.June

i.Before
the House of Lords, Lord Noel-Buxton reports on many of the issues and
atrocities in Poland regarding the minorities. (1:459)

i.18 June

i.Stalin
privately admits that there is famine in Ukraine (7:17)

j.25 July

i.Warsaw
and Moscow conclude the Polish-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact: “…in the
event of a Polish-German conflict, [the Soviet Union] will provide help and
assistance to the German Reich neither directly nor indirectly.” (1:474)

k.31 July

i.Hitler’s
Nazi Party amasses 13.7 million votes, its highest total ever; represents only
37.3% of total votes. (1:39)

l.July

i.The
first American flight instructors arrive in Shanghai. (10:130)

m.August

i.Polish
fleet stationed in the port of Danzig, against protest of the senate of the
Free State of Danzig (1:448)

n.5 September

i.Luce
publishes in Time, with Americans now
weary of Japan’s aggressiveness and fond of China’s “Christian” leaders:leaders in Japan spoke of a “Japanese Monroe
Doctrine claiming the right to protect all of Asia…and the originator to be
cited for this idea was none other than the late great Theodore Roosevelt.”
(10:117)

o.6 November

i.Hitler’s
Nazi party receives fewer votes, now 11.7 million. Goebbels writes in his
diary: “All hope has disappeared….We are on our last breath.” (1:29)

ii.The
communists come in third, but under orders from Stalin (and instead of forming
a coalition with the Social Democrats and bringing an end to the Nazis) form a
coalition government with the Nazis, propelling Hitler into power. (1:30)

i.Churchill,
at the time a conservative MP, in a speech to the Lower House: “If the British
government really wishes to promote peace, then it should take the initiative
and re-open the issues of Danzig and the Corridor while the victorious powers
are as yet superior.If these matters
are not resolved, there can be no hope for a lasting peace. (1:482)

i.The
first of “Piłsudski’s Pre-emptive Plans” – in total,
three attempts to enlist France in a pre-emptive war against Germany – is
attempted. (1:475) These three attempts were considered relatively safe given
the Russian-Polish Treaty, as Poland felt safe to attack Germany without threat
from Russia. (1:476)

i.The second of “Piłsudski’s Pre-emptive Plans”
is attempted.This one comes to the
attention of Hitler. (1:476)

ii.Both
Hitler and Mussolini offer guidance to Chiang in his fourth Bandit
Extermination Campaign.The result is
another retreat. (10:138)

1.Chiang is referred to as Mao’s supply sergeant.

j.May

i.German
Hans von Seeckt arrived in Shanghai and was
offered the post of senior adviser to oversee economic and military development
involving Germany in China.

1.Ultimately what came of this was German
cooperation to build railroads in China and a Three-Year Plan in 1936.

a.The purpose of this plan was to create an
industrial powerhouse capable of resisting Japan in the short run…

2.Germany also provided military training and
hardware.

k.July

i.Illegal
in Germany to belong to any party other than National Socialist (7:63)

l.15 November

i.At
the request of Polish Ambassador Lipski, German Ambassador von Moltke presents
a draft “friendship and non-aggression” treaty.This is followed by silence, and Piłsudski’s third attempt to enlist
France in a pre-emptive war against Germany. (1:476)

i.Prompted
by American missionaries, Mayling Soong convinces Chiang to develop a New Deal
for China, resulting in the “New Life Movement.” The name pleased the
missionaries.Americans nodded in
agreement; the handful of Chinese peasants who heard the term had no idea what
it meant. (10:170)

1.The Movement
was based upon Confucianism, mixed with Christianity, nationalism and
authoritarianism that have some similarities to fascism, used the Confucian and
Methodist notion of self-cultivation and correct living.

2.Chiang’s “Blue Shirts” enforced the edicts of the
Movement by force. (10:171)

3.The Movement flopped. (10:171)

c.17 April

i.Japan’s
Foreign Office issues a statement objecting to Roosevelt’s “supplying China
with war planes…” etc.Japan said such
support had to be stopped. (10:163)

d.June

i.Comintern
launches “Popular Front,” aimed at uniting those on
the left against fascists. (7:66)

e.5 May

i.The
Polish-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact from 1932 is renewed, with a scheduled term
of ten years. (1:475)

f.14 July

i.Hitler
announces to Parliament that 74 men were killed – Hitler’s rivals in the Nazi
party, including Ernst Röhm, head of the SA (“Brownshirts”). (7:76)

i.Poland
unilaterally renounces the Minority Protection Treaty which it had concluded in
1919 at the demand of the Allied powers. (1:466) This treaty is sometimes referred
to as the “Little Versailles Treaty.” (1:479)

1."Poland accepts... provisions... to
protect the interests of inhabitants of Poland who differ from the majority of
the population in race, language, or religion"

h.16 October

i.The
Twenty-Eight Bolsheviks (communist Chinese trained in Moscow; as opposed to
Mao’s focus on the peasants, these look to communism to flower with the
middle-class, just as did Stalin), after defeat to Chiang in the fifth Bandit
Extermination Campaign, began what would later be called the Long March with
about 90,000 troops.The 28, having no
idea about the Chinese countryside (having spent years in education at Sun
Yat-sen University in Moscow, managed to lose half of their numbers in
skirmishes to Chiang in the first month. (10:159)

i.Unknown

i.The
Polish Academy of Sciences prints picture postcards show the Polish King
Boleslaw Chrobry in front of a map of Poland – including East Prussia, Silesia,
Pomerania, the Margraviate of Brandenberg and Lübeck are represented as the
western part of Poland. (1:473)

67)1935

a.January

i.The
Twenty-Eight Bolsheviks, facing total failure and no support from the public,
handed the reigns to Mao – who practiced a communism contrary to Marx’s theory
and Stalin’s practice. (10:160)

1.Mao recasts the retreat, a march of over 6000
miles, as an advance – to face the Japanese in the north! (10:160)

1.Mao establishes his empire in the hills and
caves, even establishing a university for military study. (10:164)

g.21 November

i.Soviet
pilot Vladimir Kokkinaki sets world altitude
record of 14.575 meters with the I-15 fighter. (2:61)

h.Unknown

i.The
German armed forces surpass in strength those of Poland, with the Soviet army
several times the size. (1:478)

68)1936

a.January

i.As
a reaction to various breaches by both Germany and Poland regarding access to
East Prussia, Poland imposes the Corridor Blockade, significantly reducing rail
transit traffic between East Prussia and Germany. (1:443)

b.7 March

i.German
troops march into the Rhineland; this action is not prevented by France.
(1:480)

c.9 April

i.Nationalist
Marshall Zhang meets with Mao’s emissary Zhou Enlai, and agrees that all
Chinese must unite to fight Japan. (10:172)

d.18 July

i.Signal
given by radio to begin the uprising against the Spanish Republic. (2:98)

e.August

i.Gamelin
weakens the details of the exact nature of the French commitment to Poland in
case of German attack. (1:480)

ii.Yezhov
charges Stalin’s former political opponents with “fantastic offenses” in public
show trials. (7:73)

f.September

i.Hitler
let it be known to his cabinet that the main goal of his foreign policy was the
destruction of the Soviet Union, suggesting that the main goal of Bolshevism
was to replace those who have previously provided leadership with world Jewry. (7:106)

i.Stalin
convinces Spanish Republic’s government to hide gold reserves in the Soviet
Union for safekeeping and for payment for supply of weapons.Reserves were not seen again. (1:99)

69)1937

a.16 January

i.Yezhov
presents to Stalin his theory of a grand Polish conspiracy within the Soviet
Union. (7:92)

b.February

i.President
of the Reichstag Hermann Göring to State Secretary of Poland’s Foreign Ministry
Count Szembek: “The only thing that we are interested in is a corridor through
the Corridor.” (1:445)

c.March

i.Yezhov
purges the NKVD of Polish officers. (7:92)

d.30 April

i.Claire
Chennault resigns from the US Army air corps to work for Chiang.He was to study the Chinese air force and
make recommendations; he leaves for China the next day. (10:222)

e.1 May

i.Agreement
between German and Japanese intelligence agencies to share information
regarding USSR (7:68)

f.13 June

i.HH
Kung and two other Chinese KMT officials visited
Germany and were received by Adolf Hitler.

1.Hitler, Göring and Dr. Schacht bestowed upon
Kung an honorary degree, and attempted to open China's market to German
exports; also they earmarked for Chinese students 100,000 Reichsmarks for
studying in Germany…

1.Mao wants to fight the Japanese in northern and
central China; Chiang chooses Shanghai – for the publicity value in the US.
(10:176)

2.Outbreak ends German cooperation with Chinese; Hitler chose Japan as his ally against the
Soviet Union, because Japan was militarily far more capable to resist
Bolshevism.

h.July

i.Soviet
Order 00447, “On the Operations to Repress Former Kulaks, Criminals, and Other
Anti-Soviet Elements.”By the end of
1938, almost 400,000 executed by the NKVD in fulfillment of this order. (7:81)
In Leningrad, as one example, Poles were 34 times more likely to be arrested in
1937/1938 than their fellow Soviet citizens. (7:97) In Ukraine (home to about
70% of the Soviet Union’s Poles), for another, Poles were twelve times as
likely to be arrested. (7:99)

i.11 August

i.Yezhov
issues order 00485, mandating that the NKVD carry out “the total liquidation of
the network of spies of the Polish Military Organization.” (7:93)This was wholly invented; there was no Polish
Military Organization in the 1930s in Soviet Ukraine or anywhere else, (7:90)

j.7 October

i.Henry
Stimson, now in private life as a Wall Street Lawyer, wrote, in a letter to the
New York Times.In it, he denounced
American exports to Japan and claimed these could be stopped “without serious
danger to us.” (10:178)

k.5 November

i.Germany
and Poland consummate the Minority Protection Agreement, toward the improvement
of the treatment of Germans in Poland. (1:466, 511)

ii.Hitler
speaks for the first time in front of his generals and Foreign Minister von
Neurath about war and his plans to incorporate Austria into Germany and annex
Czechia.Poland is only peripherally
mentioned – hoping that in any wars with third countries, Poland will remain
neutral. (1:511)

l.7 November

i.Stalin,
regarding internal enemies, announces: “We will mercilessly destroy anyone who,
by his deeds or his thoughts – yes, his thoughts! – threatens the unity of the
socialist state.To the complete
destruction of all enemies, themselves and their kin!” (7:72)

m.19 November

i.British
MP (and later Foreign Minister) Lord Halifax visits Hitler to explore
possibilities of cooperation between Germany and England.Halifax speaks about a “change in the
European order, which will probably occur sooner or later.Among things at issue are Danzig and Austria
and Czechoslovakia.England is only
interested in ensuring that these changes are brought about by way of peaceful
developments. (1:511)

n.8 December

i.After
promising to defend Nanking to the end, Chiang fled the capital city with
Mayling by airplane, leaving a defenseless population to what would become
known as the Rape of Nanking. (10:180)

1.The Japanese
murdered between 40,000 and 300,000, along with widespread rape and
looting.

o.12 December

i.Japanese attack the American gunboat USS Panay while it
was anchored in the Yangtze River outside Nanking (now known as Nanjing),
China; Japan claims it was not identified as a US vessel.Japan apologizes and pays an indemnity.

p.13 December

i.Japan
attacks warships of both Britain and China, in China. (8:166)

q.Unknown

i.Rydz-Śmigły
instructs the Inspector of the Polish Army, General Kutzreba, to design a war
plan against Germany (this, while the German-Polish Treaty still has seven
years to run).(1:478)

i.Polish
Foreign Minister Beck lets French Ambassador Noel in Warsaw know that
“Czechoslovakia must disappear in the near future” and that in Poland one is
preparing “to take part of the legacy for oneself.” (1:485)

ii.Warsaw
rescinds passports of Jews who have left due to anti-Semitic actions in the
previous five years, rendering them stateless.

iii.US
government sells to Stalin the production license and the necessary equipment
for the production of the Douglas DC-3 (PS-84) transport plane. (1:77)

iv.China
establishes Universal Trade Corporation in New York’s Rockefeller Center;
several Roosevelt suggestions were named to the board.UTC was formed in order to buy supplies in
the United States. (10:193)

b.26 January

i.General
Kutzreba submits to Rydz-Śmigły the requested war plan.According to this plan, Poland will fight in
1939. The plan assumes that Poland can withstand Germany for eight weeks, by
which time France will join and then Germany will be beaten. (1:478)

c.6 February

i.Chiang
sends Hollington Tong to America to “win sympathy from the American public and
prompt the US government to put sanctions in place.” (10:182)

1.Out of this “China Lobby” mission came the
American Committee for Non-Participation in Japanese Aggression. (10:184)

i.Congress
passes a law requiring American organizations who receive money from overseas
to register as foreign agents.Leaf, too
closely associated with the Chinese, departed and was replaced by Harry
Price.(10:184)

1.No reporting or change in status. (10:185)

f.June

i.China
Lobby man Eliot Janeway wrote an article that appeared in Harper’s magazine.“We are
helping [Japan] to conquer North China by selling her the vital raw materials
she needs for armaments….The Japanese menace is made possible by American
exports….” (10:185)

g.July

i.Poll
indicates that Americans name Japan’s invasion of China more frightening than
Germany’s invasion of Austria. (10:185)

h.August

i.Every
US senator and representative in Washington and thousands of others, including
governors, pastors, mayors, Rotary and Kiwanis, etc., received a booklet
entitled “America’s Share in Japan’s War Guilt” from the American Committee for
Non-Participation in Japanese Aggression. (10:187)

1.The agreement was signed in the early hours of
30 September 1938 (but dated 29 September).

k.September

i.Poland
uses Sudeten crisis to annex West Teschen against the wishes of Britain,
France, and the Soviet Union.The
British, French, and Soviets all reject this claim.The Soviets threaten to terminate the
Polish-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact of July 1932. (1:434) London is very upset with
Poland’s action. (1:483)

ii.Hitler
does not object to Poland’s claim over West Teschen. (1:435, 488)

iii.Poland
deploys an army corps near Teschen and threatens the Czech government with
war.The Czech government yields.
(1:435)

l.October

i.Poland
occupies Teschen. (1:435)

ii.Soviets
renounce the Non-Aggression Pact with Poland. (1:435, 484)

m.24 October

i.Hitler,
in a first for a Reich government, recognizes Polish gains in former German
territories of Upper Silesia, West Prussia, and Posen in exchange for
annexation of Danzig to the Reich and extra-territorial access (a corridor) to
Danzig.(1:488) The proposal would allow
Poland a free port in Danzig, along with transit rights; an extension of the
German-Polish Treaty from 10 years to 25 years.This is the first of six attempts by Hitler (with ever-improving terms)
over the next ten months to resolve this issue by negotiation. (1:489)

n.11 November

i.Secret
cooperation agreement between Soviet NKVD and German Gestapo was signed.
(2:xxi)

i.Yezhov
replaced as NKVD chief by Lavrenty Beria; Yezhov subsequently executed
(reportedly because Yezhov was a Jew, and Hitler did not want to deal with
Jews) (7:107)

ii.With
Secretary Hull away at a conference in Lima, Peru, FDR and undersecretary
Sumner Welles approve a $25 million loan pushed by Morgenthau to help save New
China. (10:193)

q.2 December

i.From
Professor Burckhardt, the High Commissioner of the League of Nations for
Danzig, regarding his impression of a conversation with Anthony Biddle,
Roosevelt’s Ambassador in Paris: “He declared to me with a curious
satisfaction: The Poles are ready to wage war over Danzig…. In April the new
war will break out.Never since the
torpedoing of the Lusitania has such a religious hatred of Germany existed in
America like today.Chamberlain and
Daladier will be blown away by the public opinion.It is about a holy war.” (1:524)

r.5 December

i.US
Department of State: “Any attempt by the United States, Great Britain and the
Netherlands to cut off from Japan exports of oil would be met with Japan’s
forcibly taking over the Netherlands East Indies.” (10:191)

1.“…no question of a territorial order remains in
suspense and they solemnly recognize as definitive the frontier between their
two countries as it is at present established.” (This more than two years after
German troops entered the Rhineland.)

31 comments:

It is hard to avoid the conclusion that at no point in the developments taking place in Europe that you have so meticulously detailed was the sovereignty or security of American people here in the United States threatened.

Thank you. This topic so occupied (and pre-occupied) me that I almost couldn't work on any other items.

There certainly was no threat to the US (and likely not Britain, either). What is interesting is a comment I read about Lenin and subsequently Stalin (and the Lenin comment is quoted in this post). It only adds to the notion that the big winner of the war was the Soviet Union (and, of course, those who wanted to ensure communism could be the long-term enemy). It also sheds some light (for me, anyway) on the efforts of Stalin to ensure war.

I am impressed with your work. This was quite a hair pulling undertaking. I will have to buy this book you used as the source.

You accomplished something else with your post. I bought Pat Buchanan's The Unnecessary War a while back and hadn't gotten around to reading it. I will do so now having been properly encouraged.

From my study of history over the years I am convinced that most of the stuff written about WWII is BS. I've found my own share of lies over the years. This segment you covered is one of the least known and for good reason. Some of the things you wrote about above, but there are quite a few I wasn't aware of but find them credible. Generaloberst Heinz Guderian cryptically refers to the local German population suffering from "excesses of Polish nationalism", or words to that effect in his book, Panzer Leader. At the time he wrote it he was in prison, so that might explain his statement above. The Soviets would have like to have gotten their hands on him.

I too, do not trust our federal government and I am intrigued by how much of our history is "painted/tainted" in a color favorable to America. Somehow I am having trouble believing that hitler was innocent in the lead up to WWII. This narrative seems one-sided, perhaps as much so if not more so than America's version of events.

Show me a document that Hitler signed that gave the go ahead for the "Final Solution". No where in the Wannsee Conference does Hitler show up in attendance or knowing about it. Reinhard Heydrich and other names, yes. But NO Hitler. Dr. Buher, Adolf Eichmann, Dr. Freisler, Dr. Klopfer, Dr. Wilhelm Stuckart, Dr. Rudolf Lange, Dr. Georg Leibbrandt, Dr. Alfred Meyer, etc. Doctors all over the place. Jezz Louise, so many Doctors and no Hitler. Maybe we should start an investigation of the medical profession.

Excellent BM! Despite having read hundreds of books about WWII, I had to go back and look up some of these myself. I wouldn't worry too much about your reputation. I doubt many will think you a closet Nazi, or that Hitler was innocent of anything.taxes

I have read this a number of times and marvel at the hardball that Roosevelt played and how the Allies played the Poles and ultimately betrayed them. Thanks for assembling this timeline.

My public school history education started to crumble some years ago when I read how the Germans let the BEF and the French escape at Dunkirk, when they were completely surrounded. How could that be if Hitler wanted to take over the world? Really? I think if any of that were true, Hitler would have commanded the Panzers to finish them off?

I also find it interesting that the prototype of the B-17, of which 12,700 were eventually built was first flown in 1935. The B-24 prototype was built in 1939 and 18,400 were built during the war. How many 4 engine bombers did the Nazis have? Practically none. And who wanted to take over the world? I also haven't mentioned the B-25, P-51, P-38, P-47, and B-29s, that were also built in incredible numbers. And of course, what about the Lancasters and Mosquitos?

Just a random thought, it would be interesting to add the development of these bombers into the timeline, because obviously someone was thinking about "strategic" bombing long before Pearl Harbor.

You make a great point about the timing of bomber development, and what this might suggest about intentions of the Allies; I had previously considered the flip side - Germany DIDN'T develop such weapons, so where was the intent to take over the world? But not the other way.

I will be updating this timeline soon - once I finish Bloodlands. I will post on a short announcement on the blog.

I believe that it pays to remember who effectively owned the world already and that the Communist International had been preaching violent worldwide revolution for half a century before Hitler came along.

I further suspect that Hitler and the Nazis wanted to avoid being taken over by the world which is the typical fate of small, resource poor nations.

“Revisionism as applied to World War II and its origins (as also for previous wars) has the general function of bringing historical truth to an American and a world public that had been drugged by wartime lies and propaganda. The least of the lessons that revisionism can teach has already been thoroughly learned ( ed: by a select few): that Germany and Japan are not uniquely "aggressor nations," doomed from birth to menace the peace of the world. The larger lessons have, unfortunately, yet to be learned.”Now revisionism teaches us that this entire myth, so prevalent then and even now about Hitler, and about the Japanese, is a tissue of fallacies from beginning to end. Every plank in this nightmare evidence is either completely untrue or not entirely the truth. If people should learn this intellectual fraud about Hitler's Germany, then they will begin to ask questions, and searching questions…”Murray Rothbard, Revisionism for Our Times, 1966. Note: This gentleman was also Jewish.http://mises.org/daily/2592

Warfare is a fascinating subject. Despite the dubious morality of using violence to achieve personal or political aims. It remains that conflict has been used to do just that throughout recorded history.

The timeline leaves out a lotI will only note Some of the military thingsAs to the lsck of Germsn strategic bombers, the 300 u boats, tanks with 3 in guns sloped armor trucks; put it down to lack of resouces the confused strategic thinking, and feuding. One Grrman Airforce grneral did advocate heavy bombers but died in a plane cradh, and the dive bomber advocates took over. How does a horse drawn army, lacking specialised landing craft or enough merchant ships, cross the Channel in late Summer, indeed the Luftwaffe had bombed the very ports the German Navy was supposed to use.and as your timeline points out, the Germans were short of fuel. A parachute drop on England. Do you know the German parachute, that foced the Germans to drop the parachutists weapons seperately causing the huge losses in Crete?and no, the Germans did not allow, as some kind of humanitarian act the extrsction of those Allied soldiers, it ess because the German generals didnt want their tanks getting stuck in the marsh and sand as their walking infantry hsd not arrived and then there eas Georing and his promises.ss to German losses in Russia before the rains fell, see David Glantxas to why the attack on Russia was supposedly delayed, see Beevoras to the shock of the first encointer with the T34 and why yhe Germans didnt know, see Overy and Erickson and the reasons the Germans did not sttsck every Allied ship had less to do with politics or humanity and more to do with a confused naval strategy and faulty torpedoes

If you'll forgive a suggestion from the son of two English Teachers... I really think you mean "rout" in the following quote from your excellent piece: g. 1 May i. Battle of Yalu River ends. First major land clash of Russo-Japanese War, ending with a ROUTE of the Russians. (9:223).On a more serious note, my father the English Teacher was indeed a kind and gentle man... but in his youth, he was one of the American pilots who fire-bombed Dresden... an act he regretted for the rest of his life.

Here are a few more considerations about the charge that Hitler wanted to take over the world.:

Throughout the 19th century, Iran was caught between two advancing imperial powers, Russia and Britain. In 1892, the British diplomat George Curzon described Iran as "pieces on a chessboard upon which is being played out a game for the dominion of the world."[32]32. Mark J. Gasiorowski, U.S. Foreign Policy and the Shah: Building a Client State in Iran (Cornell University Press: 1991) p. 32; George N. Curzon, Persia and the Persian Question, vol. 1. (London: Cass, 1966) pp. 3–4.

One would do well to consider what Cecil Rhodes said about the subject in his last will, and also what the us politician, Beveridge had to say in his speech, "March of the Flag."

“Africa is still lying ready for us it is our duty to take it. It is our duty to seize every opportunity of acquiring more territory and we should keep this one idea steadily before our eyes that more territory simply means more of the Anglo-Saxon race more of the best the most human, most honourable race the world possesses.”

I have read in other sources that the East India Company was the drug cartel that was given a royal charter for a monopoly on the sale of Opium in China. The East India Company was owned by the Jewish Sassoon family who later combined fortunes with the English Rothschilds through marraige. The British navy providing the mafia like muscle in China is like the US army guarding the poppy fields in Afganistan. Oddly I don't see Sassoons mentioned in your time line.

Went thru your updated Timeline to War B4 1939. Found Balfour Declaration. Would suggest adding Pope Benedict XV's peace proposals and their rejection by Pres Wilson. And also Benedict XV's response to the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Also suggest adding US Congress passage of Philippine Organic Act on July 1, 1902. This act implemented the US sponsored regime setup in 1901. This act declared that all lands owned by religious orders belonged henceforth to the new Philippine government to sell or lease. The US also retained almost complete control of Philippine trade. . Also suggest adding the Potocki Reports to your timeline. The 1st report by Count Jersey Potocki(Polish Amb to the US)to the Polish Foreign Minister was Jan. 12, 1939 suggests that Roosevelt's war preparations are to take the public's mind off the depression and get America involved in Europe's struggles. The 2nd report was on April 30, 1939 and Potocki noted Roosevelt's efforts to fan the flames of war in Europe. He also noted Roosevelt's utter lack of knowledge of current events in Europe.

fantastic work as always Mr. Mosquito! May I suggest to all that you check out "Conjuring Hitler" by Professor Preparata, it is available for free online, it cost the Professor his University position. It may be worth your while to look into Halford Mackinder's work, along with Alfred Lord-Mahan and of course our contemporaries Kissinger and Brzezinski, but definitely "Conjuring Hitler", all the best, Mark in Orlando

I have referenced MacKinder above, in 1904 when he read his paper. This view has greatly influenced my thinking about wars, control, empire, etc. I believe it to be the operative model for Anglo-empire over the last century. I believe this is why Russia matters so much to the neocons.

The Balfour Declaration says nothing about the Palestinians who happened to have lived in the area since the time of Christ. It lists platitudes about protecting the rights of the then current inhabitants. But we know how long that provision was respected.

I notice that one of the beginning entries to the Timeline to War is the Partition of Poland in 1795. While I do not know why the author begins with this event, I think it is very appropriate. The Partition of Poland is significant because it had effects flowing down to our time. As I read history, I think that one of the reasons for the Partition was the fact that Poland had an elected monarchy and its people had a libertarian bent. In contrast, the Partitioners were hereditary absolute monarchies over empires. I think that they were afraid that maybe this libertarian bent would spread to their populations.(indirectly America benefitted from the Partition. Washington gained the services of the well known Pulaski and Koszciuszko and we gained some insight to the daily life at Mt. Vernon from the writings of Koszciuszko’s partner to America, Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz. Upon Washington’s invitation, Ursyn stayed at Mt. Vernon for two weeks and kept a diary of daily happenings there. Had Ursyn taken a liking to one of Martha’s daughters, maybe there would have been much closer Polish-American relationships.)Some notes on the centrality of Poland in the history of the last two centuries:Napoleon created the Grand Duchy of Warsaw. This united the three empires in opposition to him.Wilson’s thirteenth Point called for an independent Poland.Roosevelt sanctioned Stalin’s refashioning of Poland’s borders westward.As for Poland’s liberty bent, the writings of Andrzej Maksymilian Fredro (1620-1679) are instructive. His support of “subsidiarity” is worthwhile pondering.